{"id":842,"date":"2025-04-12T18:16:26","date_gmt":"2025-04-12T18:16:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2025\/04\/12\/greg-pace-jr-s-huge-day-propels-michigan-offense-to-run-rule-victory\/"},"modified":"2025-04-12T18:16:29","modified_gmt":"2025-04-12T18:16:29","slug":"greg-pace-jr-s-huge-day-propels-michigan-offense-to-run-rule-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2025\/04\/12\/greg-pace-jr-s-huge-day-propels-michigan-offense-to-run-rule-victory\/","title":{"rendered":"Greg Pace Jr.&#8217;s huge day propels Michigan offense to run-rule victory"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Starting the season from the bench, junior outfielder Greg Pace Jr. contributions to the Michigan baseball team\u2019s success were limited. He served the niche of a gadget-guy who could pinch run and serve as a defensive replacement, but not much else. Recently, however, Pace has served as the Wolverines\u2019 starting center fielder and has made significant contributions at the plate.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In Friday\u2019s 10-0 run-rule <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/baseball\/lally-secures-michigan-10-0-win-against-mount-st-marys\/\">victory<\/a> over Mount St. Mary\u2019s, Pace was 4-for-4 with three doubles, two runs scored and three RBIs \u2014 one of which scored the game-winning 10th run.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe usually talk about having productive at-bats,\u201d Michigan coach Tracy Smith said. \u201cUsually it\u2019s moving the ball forward, moving guys up and drawing walks, but today he had the big hits.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pace kick-started the Wolverines\u2019 offense in the third inning as he snuck a groundball past the third baseman. As the ball caromed around in the outfield, Pace took the extra base at second to put himself in scoring position with the top of the order coming up. With Pace\u2019s baserunning acumen in the back of Mountaineers\u2019 heads, a rattled starting pitcher whipped a pickoff attempt into center field allowing Pace to scoot over to third base.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cThat stuff is a lot about the math,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n<p>While the subsequent hitters weren\u2019t able to get Pace home, his baserunning put Michigan in an aggressive position. In fact, the math points to a 1.2866 run probability once Pace moved up to third.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Pace\u2019s first run scored came later in the fifth inning. Pulling a double into the alley, Pace pulled into second base with ease and pushed graduate catcher Matt Spear over to third. This set up graduate shortstop and leadoff hitter Benny Casillas to play a ball to the outfield, easily scoring Spear and the speedy Pace from second.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you\u2019re producing at the bottom of the order with the hitters we have at the top, you\u2019re probably going to score a lot of runs,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n<p>The very next inning, Pace found himself at the plate again, this time with the bases juiced. And as he skied a ball into left-center field, it took a hop and popped over the fence for a two-RBI ground-rule double.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-2    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>Pace created threatening situations with his legs, his power bat created runs. And in the field, a stellar running catch and contributed to two putouts on the day.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEspecially with Greg in center field, any ball that goes up will be caught.\u201d Junior right-hander David Lally Jr. said. \u201cThat guy was flying around out there.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Despite his production all day, Pace\u2019s crowning achievement came in the game\u2019s final moments. Up 9-0, one run away from a run-rule victory, Pace entered the batter\u2019s box with the game winning run on second base. Slapping a hit to the opposite field, graduate two-way player Will Rogers scored easily.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wasn\u2019t really aware of the situation, I just wanted to stay hot and record a hit.\u201d Pace said. \u201cBut then my teammates all started running at me so that was a little surprising.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Maybe if Pace knew the gravity of his at-bat, he would\u2019ve changed his approach. But keeping with what had worked all day, he put another RBI on the board and capped off a monumental day with as exciting of an RBI single as can be.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-3    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<aside>\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p><h3 class=\"jp-relatedposts-headline\"><em>Related articles<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Starting the season from the bench, junior outfielder Greg Pace Jr. contributions to the Michigan baseball team\u2019s success were limited. He served the niche of a gadget-guy who could pinch run and serve as a defensive replacement, but not much else. Recently, however, Pace has served as the Wolverines\u2019 starting center fielder and has made [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":843,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[271,906,909,908,222,835,907,836,910,911],"class_list":["post-842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-day","tag-greg","tag-huge","tag-jr-s","tag-michigan","tag-offense","tag-pace","tag-propels","tag-runrule","tag-victory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=842"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":844,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842\/revisions\/844"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}